Chapter 2145 Flower dispute (fifty-three)

  Nick's juren teacher, although he has repeatedly failed in the examination, is also familiar with the process of the "palace examination" after the middle juan.

The day before the palace exam, the ministers who read the papers will gather in the Wenhua Hall to discuss the exam questions in secret, just like when the Pope is elected, the cardinals gather in a room. The cabinet lobby on the side is monitored by the "supervising imperial censor" who is responsible for monitoring the discipline of the examination, and engraving the examination questions overnight. The cabinet hall is under martial law, and both the inside and outside of the wall are patrolled by the Royal Forest Army day and night. As soon as the next day dawned, the senior minister of the cabinet put the test questions on the yellow case in the Hall of Preserving Harmony, and then the minister of rites put the test questions on the yellow case outside the hall. , and then the entrance exam.

   The discipline of the field was very strict, and the soldiers, not the yamen, were often in charge. The military camp where Cao Xi arranged for Nick to live is not far from the Gongyuan, and the two soldiers guarding his door did not restrict his freedom. He could take a walk nearby with one of the two following.

   It's not the exam time, there is no one in the Gongyuan except the gatekeeper. Nick hopes that the other party will allow him to enter and visit.

After passing through a courtyard, they arrived at the Yimen. The candidates had to line up here to search their bodies to avoid being entrained. After passing the Yimen, they could see the central axis of the Gongyuan. The name of the building is "Dragon Gate", which means "fish leaping over the Dragon Gate", where candidates will receive their "number plates".

  Behind the Dragon Gate, also located on the central axis, is the Mingyuan Building, which is the tallest building in the entire Gongyuan.

Guangzhou Gongyuan is one of the four major tribute courtyards. Candidates from Guangdong and Guangxi have to take the test here. There are thousands of "numbered houses" on both sides of the central axis, and each row of "numbered houses" is close to the wall of the central axis. There are characters written on them. At first Nick thought they were some kind of slogan, but later found that all these characters are not repeated. They are all taken from the serial numbers of "Thousand Characters", such as the "number" that candidates just got at Longmen. The card will read "Gong C", so he needs to look for the room with "C" written on the row of the house with the word "Gong", and each room can only accommodate one person sitting in it. There are two wooden boards inside, one is a table and the other is a chair. When sleeping, the two are combined into a bed. The board and lodging are all in the house, and they are only allowed to leave when the papers are handed in.

   There is also a watchtower near the outer wall, and it is said that soldiers will be on duty on it during the exam.

   Nick was blown away after a simple visit, but he did not feel unhappy, because he saw an unforgettable scene, and Europeans would be amazed when they saw it.

   After he returned to the house full of red flowers, he painted the scenery he saw in the Gongyuan.

  Guangdong has a long coastline, not only rich harbors, but also tidal flats that provide natural conditions for salt production. Therefore, the salt industry in Guangdong has a long history. In addition to farming, locals can also fish and dry salt.

  After the war in the early Qing Dynasty and the "moving to the sea" during the Kangxi period, the Guangdong salt industry began to flourish again in the 17th century, and some salt merchants also accumulated considerable wealth.

The status of salt merchants can be said to be second only to the merchants of the thirteenth line. Like the salt merchants in the south of the Yangtze River, they turn their attention to culture and education. The government supports the development of the academy and encourages wealthy merchants to donate money. After the donation, the salt merchants' children enjoy special treatment in the imperial examination. .

  Due to the war, the cultural and educational level of Guangdong has deteriorated greatly, and the children of salt merchants have no place to study. Among the four tragic events in life, "the young children and unscrupulous teachers" correspond to the four great joys in life, "the time when the title of the golden list".

  Nick didn't understand why he didn't apply for jobs in those colleges, but instead made a living by writing for others on the street.

  During the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty, the ruler of Japan was Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who fought a war with Daming in Korea, and the trade between the two countries should have been interrupted.

   There was also the Netherlands, who established the East India Company and gained hegemony in East Asian trade in the 17th century.

   As the seven northern states of the Netherlands gained de facto independence due to their victory against Spain, the Netherlands became a European power. Then the spice trade was snatched from Portugal, and the Thirty Years War made commercial activities concentrated in Amsterdam. In a short period of time, the Netherlands gathered a lot of wealth, and then there was a group of elegant people who were keen to collect tulips, causing tulips hot.

  The poor and the rich in the Netherlands dress the same, so why do the Dutch take the speculative path?

In the absence of foreign copper and foreign silver, copper coins in Yunnan have become very important. Ming Taizu tried to issue paper money - Daming Baochao in the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, but due to and without the establishment of a reserve system Eliminated, it is not difficult to imagine why the Ministry of Household distributes pepper as the salary of officials.

  These peppers brought back by Zheng He during his voyages to the West indirectly caused Columbus to travel to the New World, and nobles and royal families needed to spend more silver to buy pepper.

The fierce competition between the UK and the Netherlands for pepper procurement in Southeast Asia such as Batavia has led to a sharp rise in the price of pepper, so farmers in Southeast Asia and other countries have opened more pepper plantations to meet the increasing demand from the European and Chinese markets. .

Later, the Dutch and the British had a war for this. The Dutch tried to bombard the British pepper ships to drive the British away. At this time, the British had not achieved maritime hegemony. They divided the trade share of clove nutmeg pepper with the Dutch in the form of a contract. .

After the Dutch East India Company went bankrupt, their share of trade was not completely swallowed up by the British, and merchant ships from the United States came to the Pepper Coast, from Boston and from Salem, famous for the witch trials, and they visited Sumatra so frequently that Local residents thought the two New England cities were two countries.

   "What's the matter?" asked Bonaparte.

  Georgianna didn’t expect to see Salem here.

   "Because of the witch trials?" said Bonaparte.

   "There were many innocent women in that trial who became 'witches' because of other people's stories."

   "Pirates are not innocent," said Bonaparte.

   "I know, do you really think the pirates came up with this plan?"

   "Even if they had no intention of that, they would have seen an opportunity to act," said Bonaparte a moment later.

   "So it was wrong for the Admiral to send soldiers to guard Guangzhou?" asked Georgiana.

"You don't know how many sane people there are in that city, Kleber told me when I was in Egypt that many soldiers felt as if they were in the Vendée, and the enemy surrounded us... You think the Admiral let the island go Are residents doing it right?"

   "Guangzhou has no soil for rebellion, they don't need to use fear to make the residents obey." Georgiana said.

"Then have you heard of what Ak Pasha did?" he said jokingly, "He will build the slaves he buys alive into the wall, and he will also guarantee fair prices in the market. Appropriate, nailed the man's tongue to the wood, and he kept a lot of cherished flowers in the garden, and then weaved tapestries while looking at the sea and flowers."

   She was a little confused.

   "Jizar was bought by Alibey from the slave market."

   "I don't want to know that," she said in pain.

   "Don't you cry out for mercy like Nick?" he said indifferently.

   "He was afraid that killing those islanders would cause the same public outrage as Yang Rong and trigger a larger-scale rebellion."

"And you?"

   "Civilization, and humanity, do you want those children to be haunted by nightmares for the rest of their lives?"

   He looked like he was going to get angry.

"Think of those soldiers wandering on the streets. They can no longer return to their normal lives. The good thing about you is that you care about their lives very much. It's not like there are good people who use them and throw them away." She was helpless. Saying, "Keep your little conscience left, Leon."

   "If you're a politician, you can't..."

   "I'm not interested in politics." She interrupted him "I'm just interested in this story, if you don't want to read it..."

   "Read." He said unhappily.

  Georgianna glared at him.

   "What?" he said impatiently.

   "Why can't it be a simple love story?" she complained.

   He laughed.

"Why are you laughing?"

   "Because this is a dream full of myths and epics, right thinking is the best way to increase efficiency."

   She still didn't understand.

   He shook his head with a smile, snatched the book from her hand, and read it.

   (end of this chapter)